So You Want to Become a Quant?

量化金融是复杂数学的应用解决财务问题。该实践用于减轻和管理复杂金融工具组合的风险。能够定量地查看问题是解决该问题的第一步。为了开发适当的解决方案，必须完全了解问题，并在手头上实现其含义。这里的重要考虑因素是有吸引力必须了解金融服务业。

Becoming a quant takes more than having the appropriate title on your business card. There are a number of ways would-be quants can acquire the right skills and knowledge base necessary to succeed in today’s financial markets. The first step is to make sure that your mathematics background is as strong as possible – stochastic calculus should be a part of that background.

Secondly, you should seek out a specialized training program, such as theCertificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF).The CQF, launched in 2003 by Dr. Paul Wilmott, gives you practical, real-world instruction on the issues and problems you will face on your job. CQF instructors are people who have actually worked as quants – offering workshops that go beyond just learning and repeating standard theories.

最后，您应该努力制定您的编程技能，这是Quant's工作的另一个重要方面。QUART必须能够汇集一个模型，该模型将跟踪或预测特定的市场参数（例如利率或波动性），并根据此基于此，价格复杂衍生物合同。编程对于测试和实施任何此类模型至关重要。

Although quants are often bundled into one large category, there are many different forms and functions within quantitative finance, across risk and trading. A common risk measure, Value at Risk (VaR), has been used to determine the level of risk a financial institution is facing. Of course, its calculation uses certain assumptions, and expressing the numbers in even simpler form (as in a “one in 2000 event”) reflects an underlying belief in a normal distribution (a bell-shaped curve), which may not be the most accurate representation. Some quants are working on proposing different distributions to model underlying processes.

After the onset of the financial crisis a year ago, risk management became a high priority for many firms. Quants working within risk management are now finding that their efforts receive greater attention and play a more crucial role. The actual risk management work has not changed fundamentally, but rather more of it is being done.

Since the crisis, quants have gotten a lot of bad press over the past year (unfairly, I believe) as the world searched for a scapegoat to shoulder the blame for the financial downturn and resulting recession. In January, Wall Street Journal reporter Scott Patterson wrote an article suggesting how a swashbuckling class of mathematicians and computer scientists were at the heart of the financial meltdown. In his Wall Street Journal piece called"The Minds Behind the Meltdown,"Patterson includes excerpts from his book "The Quants: How a New Breed of Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It." The article focuses on quants and seems to ignore the entire real-estate meltdown that preceded and triggered some of the trades.

Despite the bad press, there will always be a place for quants in the field of finance. Quants play an important role in integrating complex math into the field of finance – not just in creating instruments or new trading strategies, but to support and manage the risks and operations of the increasingly complex financial services industry.

The financial industry has problems that quants can help solve, like measuring and managing risk. It is crucial though to have a common-sense approach about the problem at hand. In the end, the issue is not an academic debate about which model is better, but about how close the model is to reality, and how well you manage to protect the company from incurring losses.

Constantin Cazacu is a Hedging Consultant with the RGA Reinsurance Company and holds a PhD and CQF.